This application relates to the World Wide Web and, in particular, to a software tool for improving the readability of documents on the Web.
The past several years have seen an explosive growth of the internet, and specifically, in the growth of the World Wide Web (hereafter "the Web"). The Web is built around a network of "server" computers which exchange requests and data from each other using the hypertext transfer protocol ("http"). A human designer designs the layout of a Web page and specifies the layout of the page using HTML ("Hypertext Markup Language"). Several versions of HTML are currently in existence. Examples include HTML versions 2.0 and 3.0, as specified by the WWW Consortium of MIT.
A user views a Web page using one of a number of commercially available "browser" programs. The browser submits an appropriate http request to establish a communications link with a Web server of the network. A typical http request references a Web page by its unique Uniform Resource Locator ("URL"). A URL identifies the Web server hosting that Web page, so that an http request for access to the Web page can be routed to the appropriate Web server for handling. Web pages can also be linked graphically to each other.
Information presentations on Web pages are often abbreviated or shortened in order to save space and to produce better layouts. Typical examples of abbreviated or shortened information include icons in the toolbars of applications running under a window system or the use of codes in statistical tables. Web pages in particular often include abbreviated forms of information because it is desirable to squeeze as much information as possible into a window without requiring the user to scroll the window.
If the user understands the code or abbreviation used in a Web page, then the information may be understood without any problems. Difficulties may arise, however, if the user does not understand the short form of the information. Designers of Web pages are used to being able to design pages by simple text editing and the use of human-readable HTML tags. What is needed is a convenient way for designers of Web pages to add additional information to their Webpages without having to understand the complex programming tools required to construct graphical user interfaces.